Overview

My current research activities concern randomised trials that use routinely collected data (such as electronic health records). These trials can either randomise patients or practices to different interventions (the latter are known are known as cluster trials). These types of trials could help to answer questions around routinely used interventions and should be conducted with minimal impact on clinicians and patients. Other research activities concern multidatabase research and analysis of quality of electronic health records.

Biography

Tjeerd van Staa studied medicine and received his degree in 1987 at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. After several years of working as a practising physician, he joined the pharmaceutical industry and worked as an epidemiologist and was also the European Qualified Person for Drug Safety. During this time, he obtained a MSc in Epidemiology (McGill University, Canada) and was awarded a PhD in Pharmacoepidemiology at Utrecht University in 1999. He has also a Master’s in Medical Law and Ethics. He was the Director of Research of the Clinical Practice Research Datalink from 2006 to 2014. In May 2014, he became Professor of Health eResearch at the Farr Institute of Manchester University. He has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles and is a well-recognised speaker in the field of pragmatic trials, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacovigilance and osteoporosis. He has been awarded several academic affiliations (Utrecht University, the Netherlands; Medical Research Council, Southampton; London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine). Van Staa is the recipient of the 2005 Iain I Boyle Award of the European Calcified Tissue Society (a monetary price awarded to the scientist who has made significant contributions to bone disease research (http://www.ectsoc.org/).